#bell lore

A cat would be very difficult from them to track and grasp in their talons so no. But, I'm sure if a cat for some reason approached one resting or a nest, a Roc would attempt to snap them up.

I thought of making this post because, in a previous one I checked Françoise Lebrun's Book of Easter and she speaks a bit of the belief in Easter bells.

If you wonder why the heck French people believe it is bells out of all things that lay the eggs, it is simple. Due to the Holy Week being a celebration of when Jesus died, the bells remain silent to commemorate his death and can only ring again when he is resurrected. Sorrow and joy, mourning and happiness, you know, the usual stuff. This specific silent was woven with the egg-tradition into the child-told belief that the church bells (which were obviously the village bells and town bells too) actually flew to Rome during the days they remained "silent" and returned from Easter - with the whole imagery of the bells growing wings and, upon returning, dropping the Easter eggs into the gardens.

Now, the interesting question that Françoise Lebrun raises in her book is: why exactly do the bells go to Rome?

We are always told the bells go to Rome... But the reason why changes from region to region. The simplest and most popular answer is "They just go seek the eggs for the kids". More traditionally and logically, they are said to go see the Pope. But why? In Franche-Comté, they are merely celebrating Easter in Rome early. In Bresse and Flandres they go to be specifically blessed by the pope. But in Metz they go visit the Pope in person and they have... lunch with him. The most poetic one however is the Isère version, where the bells go to be confessed and absolved by the pope. Which raises the question: what type of sin can a bell ever commit?

There's also a bit weirder takes, like how in Hautes-Alpes and Ardèches they are seeking in Rome specific type of food - sausages and cheese respectively. Françoise Lebrun even quotes a folktale that turned the bells' trip to Rome into some epic saga, where they go to be blessed by "the last Pope to have entered Heaven", who comes back on earth just for them (also implies not all popes go to heaven...) and on the return journey they must be careful of the armies of the devil, all sorts of demons sent to try to maim, trick or destroy them - because the angels are all too busy mourning Jesus, meaning hell is free to do as it wants...

Lebrun connects this to the common folk-belief that the bells actually are alive, or rather have some sort of soul. After all, they each had their unique sound referred to as a "voice" ; they "sang" for the most important moments of the community's life (births and deaths, fires and wars) ; they had names, and they were even baptized. So obviously, it meant they had a soul.

In fact, in the Haute-Alpes region, they conciled the "bells go to Rome" tale with the fact the bells remained still in their tower (kids were advised throughout France to not look up at the church bells during the days the bells "went away") by explaining that this journey was... an astral projection. That only the souls of the bells went to Rome whereas their body remained behind as empty husks... And anybody who dared to hit one of these souless bells would be committing a serious sin.